Archive for June 2014

Celebrate 30 years of ghost-busting action with the iconic Ghostbusters Ecto-1 car! Selected by LEGO Ideas members (formerly known as CUUSOO), this fun and iconic vehicle from the blockbuster ‘80s movie is fully loaded with all the paranormal detection equipment needed to track down those ghastly ghosts. It also features cool Ghostbusterslogo decoration, removable roof, tracking computer and seats for 3 minifigures. This unique set also includes a fascinating booklet containing building instructions, selected images and behind-the-scenes details about the classic Ghostbusters movie. So if there’s something strange in your neighbourhood, strap on your proton pack and get ready to help Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddemore bust some ghosts! 4 minifigures with proton packs included.

Ghostbusters, like Back to the Future before it, is a film franchise still holds a certain magic even 30 years later. Lego Ideas (formerly CUUSOO) delivers yet again on its promise with a set Lego fans have been dreaming of for years.

Minifigures: This set was always going to live or die by its minifigures and one of its major successes is the inclusion of a figure stand. When you have such legendary actors represented, you need to put them front and centre. You get 4 minifigures here, each with double face prints and different torso prints. Each figure also has a buildable proton pack which looks surprisingly detailed for such a small scale. The figures are decent interpretations of Bill Murray et al but there is one glaring omission. Where is Slimer? This Ghostbusters set has no ghost! Slimer is one of the most iconic elements from the franchise and his exclusion here is a real misstep, especially for a £45 set.

Build: This set includes unnumbered bags but it is still a relatively quick build. The proton packs take a little time to assemble and the inclusion of a figure stand makes the building of the minifigures a more important feature than in most Lego sets. The frame of the car comes together almost immediately with only the details such as the roof taking a little more time. There are some clever building tricks employed to recreate the famous Ecto-1 with the tilted side windows being a particular highlight and the generous number of chrome silver pieces which really help the overall look of the car. There are four printed bricks featuring the Ghostbusters logo (not a sticker in sight!) and we also get two printed Ecto-1 number plates. The car is unable to fit all four minifigures in a sitting position but I doubt anyone had planned to display them in this way. The final product looks fantastic and most fans will be happy with how well the set has turned out.

That being said, this should really have been the same price as the Back to the Future set. Yes you get four minifigures but the Ecto-1 really isn’t big enough or detailed enough to warrant the hefty price tag. This is a set aimed squarely at AFOLs who grew up with the Ghostbusters films and as such, Lego probably skewed the price a bit higher. You do get a gorgeous instruction book which features some great Ghostbusters quotes on several pages as well as a brief look at the movie itself. A few extra details would have brought this set up a little higher. Most fans would have expected Slimer minifigure and even for £10-£15 more, how cool would it have been to include a Lego Stay Puft Marshmallow Man?

Still, you can’t deny Lego have captured at least some of the magic with this set. The Ecto-1 car and the minifigures are both well designed and instantly charming.

Nathan Sawaya created a LEGO Baseball, built with 150 bricks for the first pitch in Penascola Blue Wahoos minor league game against The Huntsville Stars on Saturday evening!

The Art of The Brick creator also unveiled a specially commissioned LEGO Baseball statue and had the home teams shirts sport his trademark Yellow statue on the back of their shirts.Unfortunately for The Blue Wahoos they lost the game to The Huntsville Stars 5-4.

LEGO continue to push the boundaries. Best known for their construction kits, LEGO video games and movies have grabbed the headlines in recent months.

Now LEGO are combining video game technology with their construction kits in the form of LEGO Fusion!

Here is the press release…

LEGO Systems, Inc., makers of the world’s leading construction toys, today introduced LEGO® FUSION, a play experience that combines traditional LEGO brick play with familiar app-based game themes. LEGO FUSION leverages new technologies—and children’s fascination with them—to create an entirely new way to engage in LEGO brick building and app game play for children ages 7 and up. Available later this summer, the LEGO FUSION collection will include four distinct titles: LEGO FUSION Town Master, LEGO FUSION Battle Towers, LEGO FUSION Create & Race and LEGO FUSION Resort Designer.

Each LEGO FUSION experience consists of a distinct set of LEGO bricks, a corresponding free downloadable app and the new FUSION capture plate, a small brick building plate with a printed design that enables a smart phone or tablet’s camera to identify the size and colors of the LEGO bricks built onto it. In response to game prompts, children build vertically in 2-D on the FUSION capture plate, enabling the app to ‘see,’ import and transform the creation into 3-D in the digital world.

“Children have always imagined their LEGO creations as immersive worlds which come to life for hours of role-play and adventure,” said Ditte Bruun Pedersen, senior design manager, LEGO Future Lab. “Recently, smart phones and tablets have become a popular platform for empowering game mechanisms that kids love. LEGO FUSION brings these two favorite play patterns together in an experience where real-life LEGO builds come to life in a virtual game, inspiring creativity, strategy, and the pride of creation.”

To Win, Step Away from the Screen Once a child’s creation has been imported into the game, a series of challenges and interactions requires that players turn away from the device and return to the real world to use their LEGO bricks to build new solutions in order to move game play forward. Each game encourages this back-and-forth between physical and virtual, keeping children engaged in both worlds.

“In our research, we heard repeatedly from parents that they are constantly battling ‘zombie gaze,’ the experience when their children are immersed in their device screens for large blocks of time,” said Pedersen. “We developed LEGO FUSION with this challenge in mind, creating a play experience that keeps children entertained with the kind of app gameplay they love while giving real reasons to return to the brick pile to creatively build.”

Each LEGO FUSION product offers a distinct play experience. The four products launching this year are:

LEGO FUSION Town Master:In this simulation game, players create and rule their own LEGO town, first by building it with LEGO bricks, then by capturing it and importing it to the game. Children build everything from houses to a pizzeria, fire station and bike shop while completing errands and missions like catching robbers, fighting fires and skateboarding. To keep the minifigure citizens happy, players solve problems through physical building and earn points to gain access to more structures, and even run additional towns.

LEGO FUSION Battle Towers:Players build a tower and defend it against attack so they can rule the kingdom. First, players design the Battle Towers with real LEGO pieces, then capture them and import them to the game. Next, players choose tower defenders like wizards and archers and battle against evil warriors, skeleton armies, and more. If a tower is damaged in battle, players can repair the damage with a timed build with the game’s real LEGO bricks.

LEGO FUSION Create & Race:In this racing game, players get behind the wheel and virtually drive the cars that they create with real LEGO bricks. Once a custom vehicle is digitally designed, physically built, and imported to the game, it can be optimized for success in racing, demolition or stunts. Players learn that every brick shape and color on the vehicle matters for performance. Three themed courses offer endless challenges unlocked by physical LEGO builds, and children can even ghost race against friends to top the leaderboard.

LEGO FUSION Resort Designer: Players help the LEGO Friends design new vacation houses, shops and activities for Ambersands Beach. After building 2-D facades, capturing them and importing them to the game, players can design the interiors of 3-D digital structures, such as an aquarium, surf shop and beach houses. Children can unlock new levels and build more resorts by completing missions like rescuing dolphins, riding horses, surfing and other resort activities.

Beginning in September, LEGO FUSION will incorporate the ability for players to access their digital LEGO creations and game play anywhere. Using their LEGO ID, players can sign in on any compatible device and access their gallery and game play from within the LEGO FUSION app.

Developed by TT Games, makers of the best-selling LEGO video game franchise, the LEGO FUSION Town Master, Battle Towers, Create & Race, and Resort Designer app games are free for download from the Apple, Google or Samsung App Store for Apple iOS and Android.

LEGO FUSION Town Master, LEGO FUSION Battle Towers, and LEGO FUSION Create & Race will launch in August 2014; LEGO FUSION Resort Designer will launch in September 2014. Each will be available for $34.99 in LEGO Stores and Toys”R”Us stores in the U.S., as well as online at shop.LEGO.com and at toysrus.com

Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel is due for release on Blu-Ray/DVD in the UK on 7th July 2014 and to help promote the film, Ryan Ziegelbauer and a team of builders spent 575 hours building and designing the replica of the exquisite hotel. Built with 50,000 bricks, measures 7 feet tall and weighs around 70kg!

Recreate hilarious scenes from the classic animated TV series with The Simpsons™ House. Taken right out of Springfield, this amazing model is crammed with tons of LEGO® brick detail. Lift off the roof and open up the house to discover Homer and Marge’s big family bedroom including bed and Maggie’s crib, Bart’s room with his skateboard and Krusty the Clown poster, Lisa’s room with her favorite books, jazz poster and more, and bathroom with shower, toilet, sink and mirror. Lift off the top floor to reveal the fully-fitted kitchen with dining table, chairs, yellow and light-blue tiled floor and lots of pots, pans and other accessories. Then it’s into the living room with couch and TV playing Itchy and Scratchy, purple piano and more. Next to the house is the detachable garage, complete with workbench, tool rack, vacuum cleaner, broom, toolbox, tools and the family car, complete with dent (because only in a LEGO world are dents a plus!), opening trunk and ‘radioactive’ bar from the nuclear power plant. Step outside onto the terrace and you’ll find loads of cool items, including a grill, wheelbarrow and air conditioning unit with ‘Property of Ned Flanders’ decoration, sausages, 2 garden loungers, flowerpots, a shovel, 2 fruit cocktail glasses, Lisa’s camera, Bart’s skateboard ramp with ‘El Barto’ graffiti and an antenna on the roof. The Simpsons™ House is the perfect collector’s item for fans of all ages. Includes 6 minifigures: Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie and Ned Flanders.